stress and cardiovascular disease

A recent study published in Brain, Behavior and Immunity suggests that adversity during childhood and trauma during adulthood are associated with elevated high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). This is perhaps the first large population-based study to assess the connection between adulthood trauma exposure and inflammation. Over 11,000 adults ranging from age 59 to 79 years […]

A new study published in the journal Heart indicates that men with low stress resilience during youth are prone to approximately 40% increase in the risk of developing hypertension in later life. Of note, the combination of low stress resilience and high body mass index (BMI) triples the hypertension risk. High blood pressure is a […]

The Stress of Life, a classic book written by the man who introduced the term (psychological) “stress” and “dedicated his entire scientific career to furnish more and more proof for the importance of neuroendocrine mechanisms in the development of disease. János Hugo Bruno “Hans” Selye (January 26, 1907 – October 16, 1982) was a pioneering […]

Recently, Petra Wirtz and colleagues from the Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland demonstrated perhaps for the first time that consumption of dark chocolate is linked to lower stress reactivity. Evidence indicates a beneficial effect of cocoa flavonoids on cardiovascular health. However, little is known about the effect of dark chocolate consumption on the […]

In the February 2014 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) Ji-Hoon Choa and colleagues from the Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA, USA, used an adapted aggressor-exposed social stress mouse model for PTSD to demonstrate genetically associated stress-induced tissue injuries on peripheral organs, including the heart. Posttraumatic […]

In the December 2013 issue of PLOS One, a research team from the Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC reports that a functional polymorphism of the 5HTR2C gene is associated with a 38% increased risk for cardiovascular disease events. This includes mortality and myocardial infarction (MI), independent of several traditional risk factors, […]

A recent report in the FASEB Journal indicates that Neuropeptide Y (NPY) system is a potential mediator of programming for the offspring’s vulnerability to obesity and metabolic syndrome induced by maternal low-protein diet (LPD). According to CDC more than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese. As stated by Ogden C. et al., 17.1% of […]

SHORT FEATURES and FACES ARTICLE A recent Editorial published in the March 2012 issue of Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy outlines some new insights and research trends related to stress-induced cardiomyopathy. Stress-induced cardiomyopathy, also known as “Takotsubo” cardiomyopathy, broken heart syndrome and apical ballooning syndrome, was ﬁrst described in Japan, in 1990, by Sato et […]

A recent study published in the 2012 July issue of the British Medical Journal is probably the largest so far to show that a dose-response association exists between psychological distress and major causes of mortality across the full range of distress. Psychological stress has been linked to the development and progression of several common human […]

A study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry indicates that functional polymorphism in the 5HTR2C gene may contribute to altered stress reactivity, and to a specific endophenotype that may be linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes. Enhanced hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and cortisol responses to stress have been linked to high […]